PDF The Influence of the Tongue on Vocal Production

[Pages:88]THE INFLUENCE OF THE TONGUE ON VOCAL PRODUCTION Maria Lindberg-Kransmo, B.S.S..

Thesis Prepared for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS May 2002

APPROVED: Jeffrey Snider, Major Professor and Chair of the

Division of Vocal Studies Jolyne Antista Jeffers, Minor Professor Ling Lu, Committee Member and Chair of the

Graduate Admissions for Speech and Language Pathology David L. Shrader. Dean of the College of Music C. Neal Tate, Dean of the Robert B. Toulouse School of Graduate Studies

Lindberg-Kransmo, Maria, The Influence of the Tongue on Vocal Production. Master of Arts (Music), May 2002, 81 pp., 15 illustrations, references, 86 titles.

The purpose of this study is to assemble information needed to assess, understand and hopefully correct muscular hyperfunction that is related to tongue tension in singing and speech which inhibit freely, efficiently, and comfortably produced beautiful singing. This text will include a definition of freely produced, fully resonating tone for beautiful singing, major components of vocal technique, physiology related to singing and speech production, hyperfunctions associated with tongue tension, tongue involvement in the articulation of the four major singing languages, and will present exercises for training the muscles of coordination in a manner conducive to singing and speech.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Acknowledgement is extended to Jolyne Antista Jeffers, M.M., Adjunct Professor of Voice at University of North Texas, for her critical review and supervisory opinions.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................ ii

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS......................................................................................................... vi

Chapter

1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................1

2. SINGING .................................................................................................................3 Definition of Freely Produced, Fully Resonating Tone for Beautiful Singing .........................................................................................................3 Major Components of Vocal Technique......................................................4 Breath ...............................................................................................4 Vocal Fold Involvement and Vibration ...........................................6 Resonance ........................................................................................7 Singer's Formant ..............................................................................9 Fundamental Frequencies and Tongue Involvement .....................10 Body Posture..................................................................................12 Head Positioning............................................................................13 Summation .................................................................................................14

3. PHYSIOLOGY ......................................................................................................15 Tongue .......................................................................................................16 Intrinsic Tongue Muscles...............................................................18 Extrinsic Tongue Muscles .............................................................20 Larynx ........................................................................................................23 Unpaired Cartilages .......................................................................25 Paired Cartilages ............................................................................26 Movement of the Cartilages...........................................................28 Hyoid Bone ................................................................................................28 Pharynx ......................................................................................................29 Muscles of the Vocal Apparatus ................................................................30

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Intrinsic Musculature .....................................................................30 Extrinsic Musculature ....................................................................33

4. TONGUE TENSION AND VOCAL HYPERFUNCTION ..................................35 Tongue Tension .........................................................................................35 Vocal Hyperfunction..................................................................................37 Tonal Placement.........................................................................................38

5. ARTICULATION: THE NATURE AND FORMATION OF VOWELS AND CONSONANTS.....................................................................................................42 English Pronunciation................................................................................42 Tongue and Forward Vowels.........................................................43 Tongue and Back Vowels ..............................................................45 Tongue and Central Vowels ..........................................................46 Tongue in Diphthongs and Glides .................................................47 Tongue and Consonants.................................................................48 Comparing French, German and Italian Pronunciation with English.......50 Forward Vowels.............................................................................51 Back Vowels ..................................................................................53 Central Vowels ..............................................................................54 Mixed Vowels................................................................................55 Consonants .....................................................................................55

6. TRAINING AND RE-TRAINING OF MUSCLES IN RELATION TO TONGUE TENSION ..............................................................................................................59 Yawn-Sigh Technique ...............................................................................59 Muscoskeletal Tension Massage ...............................................................60 Tongue Protrusion......................................................................................61 Chewing .....................................................................................................62 Relaxation ..................................................................................................62 Exercises for Flexibility and Precision of the Tongue...................64 Exercises for Relaxing the Tongue ................................................64 Vocal Exercises for Relieving Tongue Tension ........................................65

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7. CONCLUSION......................................................................................................67 APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................69 BIBLIOGRAPHY..........................................................................................................................76

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Page

Figure 3.1 Regions of the tongue (cross section)......................................................................... 16 Figure 3.2 Landmarks of the tongue. ........................................................................................... 17 Figure 3.3 Interior surface of the tongue. .................................................................................... 18 Figure 3.4 Intrinsic muscles of the tongue (anterior view, frontal section)................................. 19 Figure 3.5 Genioglossus and related muscles.............................................................................. 21 Figure 3.6 Extrinsic muscles of the tongue (lateral view). ........................................................... 22 Figure 3.7 Cartilages of the larynx ............................................................................................... 24 Figure 3.8 Lateral view of the larynx (cross section). ................................................................. 27 Figure 3.9 Pharynx (cross section) ............................................................................................... 30 Figure 3.10 Posterior view of the larynx ...................................................................................... 32 Figure 3.11 Anterior superior view of larynx, thyrovocalis, and thyromuscularis....................... 34 Figure 5.1 Vowel chart ................................................................................................................. 43 Figure 5.2 French vowels, showing relative height, roundness, opening and closure ................. 51 Figure 5.3 Chart of Italian vowels, showing relative height, roundness, opening and closure .... 53 Figure 5.4 Chart of German vowels, showing relative height, roundness,opening and closure... 54

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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Beautiful singing in the western tradition usually take years of training to acquire,

training which hopefully can yield all necessary skills needed for this type of singing. Even with

excellent skills there can still be singing issues that can hold back a trained or aspiring singer

from advancing. One of these issues is tongue tension. Kate Emile-Behnke, in her book Singers' Difficulties: How to Overcome Them1 describe problems of the unruly tongue for singing thusly:

It [the tongue] slips back into the throat, the root tightens, it rears up when it ought to lie down, it flattens itself when it ought to curve, intercepting and breaking up the sound waves, plugging the throat, fixing the larynx, and blocking the sounding chamber of the mouth; its failure to adjust and readjust prevents purity of vowels, and its lack of agility makes crisp consonants impossible. Vennard, Miller, Brown and Browning Henderson2 all note that excessive tongue tension can be

an impediment for beautiful free singing.

In order to master freely, efficiently produced, beautiful singing, a singer with tongue

tension will need to learn new muscular coordinations, abandoning old muscular habits, and

establishing new routines. This can necessitate adjustments, training and retraining, not only of

singing coordination, but also of speech execution. How the tongue is used can cause vocal

hyperfunction, and less-then-optimal acoustic results. Vocal hyperfunction is the abuse and

misuse of the voice and can occur in both singing and speaking.

It would be highly significant if there could be collected into one source, all the

information needed to address the possible singing and speaking coordination that lead to

1 K. Emile-Behnke. Singers' Difficulties: How to Overcome Them. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, (n.d), 108.

2 W.Vennard, Singing, the Mechanism and the Technique. New York: Carl Fischer. (1967); R.Miller,The Structure of Singing. New York: Shirmer Books, (1996); O. Brown, Discover your Voice: How to Develop Healthy Voice Habits. San Diego, CA: Singular Publishing Group (1996); L. Browning Henderson, How to Train Singers. West Nyack, N.Y. Parker Publishing Company Inc. (1979)

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